arXiv subjects

Angel Rubio

Publications and source records attributed to Angel Rubio.

At least 397 records · Page 22Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Density-functional Theory for f electron Systems: the α-γ Phase Transition in Cerium

The isostructural α-γ phase transition in cerium is analyzed using density-functional theory with different exchange-correlation functionals, in particular the PBE0 hybrid functional and the exact- exchange plus correlation in the random-phase approximation [(EX+cRPA)@PBE0] approach. We show that the Hartree-Fock exchange part of the hybrid functional actuates two distinct solutions at zero temperature that can be associated with the α and γ phases of cerium. However, despite the relatively good structural and magnetic properties, PBE0 predicts the γ phase to be the stable phase at ambient pressure and zero temperature, in contradiction with low temperature experiments. EX+cRPA reverses the energetic ordering, which emphasizes the importance of correlation for rare- earth systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Challenges in Truncating the Hierarchy of Time-Dependent Reduced Density Matrices Equations: Open Problems

In this work, we analyze the Born, Bogoliubov, Green, Kirkwood and Yvon (BBGKY) hierarchy of equations for describing the full time-evolution of a many-body fermionic system in terms of its reduced density matrices (at all orders). We provide an exhaustive study of the challenges and open problems linked to the truncation of such hierarchy of equations to make them practically applicable. We restrict our analysis to the coupled evolution of the one- and two-body reduced density matrices, where higher order correlation effects are embodied into the approximation used to close the equations. We prove that within this approach, the number of electrons and total energy are conserved, regardless of the employed approximation. Further, we demonstrate that although most of the truncation schemes available in the literature give acceptable ground state energy, when applied to describe driven electron dynamics exhibit undesirable and unphysical behavior, e.g., violation and even divergence in local electronic density, both in weakly- and strongly-correlated regimes. We illustrate and analyze these problems within the few-site Hubbard model. The model can be solved exactly and provides a unique reference for our detailed study of electron dynamics for different values of interaction, different initial conditions, and large set of approximations considered here. Moreover, we study the role of compatibility between two hierarchical equations, and positive- semidefiniteness of reduced density matrices in instability of electron dynamics. We show that even if the used approximation holds the compatibility, electron dynamics can still diverge when positive- definitiveness is violated. We propose some partial solutions of such problem and point the main paths for future work in order to make this approach applicable for the description of the correlated electron dynamics in complex systems.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Enhanced thermoelectric properties in hybrid graphene-boron nitride nanoribbons

The thermoelectric properties of hybrid graphene-boron nitride nanoribbons (BCNNRs) are investigated using the non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) approach. We find that the thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) can be remarkably enhanced by periodically embedding hexagonal BN (h-BN) into graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). Compared to pristine GNRs, the ZT for armchair-edged BCNNRs with width index 3p+2 is enhanced up to 10~20 times while the ZT of nanoribbons with other widths is enhanced just by 1.5~3 times. As for zigzag-edge nanoribbons, the ZT is enhanced up to 2~3 times. This improvement comes from the combined increase in the Seebeck coefficient and the reduction in the thermal conductivity outweighing the decrease in the electrical conductance. In addition, the effect of component ratio of h-BN on the thermoelectric transport properties is discussed. These results qualify BCNNRs as a promising candidate for building outstanding thermoelectric devices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2012

The role of non-local exchange in the electronic structure of correlated oxides

We present a systematic study of the electronic structure of several prototypical correlated transition-metal oxides: VO2, V2O3, Ti2O3, LaTiO3, and YTiO3. In all these materials, in the low-temperature insulating phases the local and semilocal density approximations (LDA and GGA) of density-functional theory yield a metallic Kohn-Sham band structure. Here we show that, without invoking strong-correlation effects, the role of non-local exchange is essential to cure the LDA/GGA delocalization error and provide a band-structure description of the electronic properties in qualitative agreement with the experimental photoemission results. To this end, we make use of hybrid functionals that mix a portion of non-local Fock exchange with the local LDA exchange-correlation potential. Finally, we discuss the advantages and the shortcomings of using hybrid functionals for correlated transition-metal oxides.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2011

Anomalous insulator metal transition in boron nitride-graphene hybrid atomic layers

The study of two-dimensional (2D) electronic systems is of great fundamental significance in physics. Atomic layers containing hybridized domains of graphene and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BNC) constitute a new kind of disordered 2D electronic system. Magneto-electric transport measurements performed at low temperature in vapor phase synthesized h-BNC atomic layers show a clear and anomalous transition from an insulating to a metallic behavior upon cooling. The observed insulator to metal transition can be modulated by electron and hole doping and by the application of an external magnetic field. These results supported by ab-initio calculations suggest that this transition in h-BNC has distinctly different characteristics when compared to other 2D electron systems and is the result of the coexistence between two distinct mechanisms, namely, percolation through metallic graphene networks and hopping conduction between edge states on randomly distributed insulating h-BN domains.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

Strong electronic correlation in the Hydrogen chain: a variational Monte Carlo study

In this article, we report a fully ab initio variational Monte Carlo study of the linear, and periodic chain of Hydrogen atoms, a prototype system providing the simplest example of strong electronic correlation in low dimensions. In particular, we prove that numerical accuracy comparable to that of benchmark density matrix renormalization group calculations can be achieved by using a highly correlated Jastrow-antisymmetrized geminal power variational wave function. Furthermore, by using the so-called "modern theory of polarization" and by studying the spin-spin and dimer-dimer correlations functions, we have characterized in details the crossover between the weakly and strongly correlated regimes of this atomic chain. Our results show that variational Monte Carlo provides an accurate and flexible alternative to highly correlated methods of quantum chemistry which, at variance with these methods, can be also applied to a strongly correlated solid in low dimensions close to a crossover or a phase transition.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Dielectric screening in two-dimensional insulators: Implications for excitonic and impurity states in graphane

For atomic thin layer insulating materials we provide an exact analytic form of the two-dimensional screened potential. In contrast to three-dimensional systems where the macroscopic screening can be described by a static dielectric constant in 2D systems the macroscopic screening is non local (q-dependent) showing a logarithmic divergence for small distances and reaching the unscreened Coulomb potential for large distances. The cross-over of these two regimes is dictated by 2D layer polarizability that can be easily computed by standard first-principles techniques. The present results have strong implications for describing gap-impurity levels and also exciton binding energies. The simple model derived here captures the main physical effects and reproduces well, for the case of graphane, the full many-body GW plus Bethe-Salpeter calculations. As an additional outcome we show that the impurity hole-doping in graphane leads to strongly localized states, what hampers applications in electronic devices. In spite of the inefficient and nonlocal two-dimensional macroscopic screening we demonstrate that a simple $\mathbf{k}\cdot\mathbf{p}$ approach is capable to describe the electronic and transport properties of confined 2D systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2011

On the Combination of TDDFT with Molecular Dynamics: New Developments

In principle, we should not need the time-dependent extension of density-functional theory (TDDFT) for excitations, and in particular not for Molecular Dynamics (MD) studies: the theorem by Hohenberg and Kohn teaches us that for any observable that we wish to look at (including dynamical properties or observables dependent on excited states) there is a corresponding functional of the ground-state density. Yet the unavailability of such magic functionals in many cases (the theorem is a non-constructive existence result) demands the development and use of the alternative exact reformulation of quantum mechanics provided by TDDFT. This theory defines a convenient route to electronic excitations and to the dynamics of a many-electron system subject to an arbitrary time-dependent perturbation. This is, in fact, the main purpose of inscribing TDDFT in a MD framework -the inclusion of the effect of electronic excited states in the dynamics. However, as we will show in this review, it may not be the only use of TDDFT in this context. In this manuscript, we review two recent proposals: In Section 1.2, we show how TDDFT can be used to design efficient gsBOMD algorithms -even if the electronic excited states are in this case not relevant. The work described in Section 1.3 addresses the problem of mixed quantum-classical systems at thermal equilibrium.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Charge-transfer in time-dependent density-functional theory via spin-symmetry-breaking

Long-range charge-transfer excitations pose a major challenge for time-dependent density functional approximations. We show that spin-symmetry-breaking offers a simple solution for molecules composed of open-shell fragments, yielding accurate excitations at large separations when the acceptor effectively contains one active electron. Unrestricted exact-exchange and self-interaction-corrected functionals are performed on one-dimensional models and the real LiH molecule within the pseudopotential approximation to demonstrate our results.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2010

Assessment of Dressed Time-Dependent Density-Functional Theory for the Low-Lying Valence States of 28 Organic Chromophores

Almost all time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) calculations of excited states make use of the adiabatic approximation, which implies a frequency-independent exchange-correlation kernel that limits applications to one-hole/one-particle states. To remedy this problem, Maitra et al.[J.Chem.Phys. 120, 5932 (2004)] proposed dressed TDDFT (D-TDDFT), which includes explicit two-hole/two-particle states by adding a frequency-dependent term to adiabatic TDDFT. This paper offers the first extensive test of D-TDDFT, and its ability to represent excitation energies in a general fashion. We present D-TDDFT excited states for 28 chromophores and compare them with the benchmark results of Schreiber et al.[J.Chem.Phys. 128, 134110 (2008).] We find the choice of functional used for the A-TDDFT step to be critical for positioning the 1h1p states with respect to the 2h2p states. We observe that D-TDDFT without HF exchange increases the error in excitations already underestimated by A-TDDFT. This problem is largely remedied by implementation of D- TDDFT including Hartree-Fock exchange.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2010

Electronic properties of molecular solids: the peculiar case of solid Picene

Recently, a new organic superconductor, K-intercalated Picene with high transition temperatures $T_c$ (up to 18\,K) has been discovered. We have investigated the electronic properties of the undoped relative, solid picene, using a combination of experimental and theoretical methods. Our results provide detailed insight into the occuopied and unoccupied electronic states.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Self-Energy and Excitonic Effects in the Electronic and Optical Properties of TiO2 Crystalline Phases

We present a unified ab-initio study of electronic and optical properties of TiO2 rutile and anatase phases, with a combination of Density Functional Theory and Many Body Perturbation Theory techniques. The consistent treatment of exchange-correlation, with the inclusion of many body one-particle and two-particles effects in self-energy and electron-hole interaction, produces a high quality description of electronic and optical properties, giving, for some quantities, the first available estimation for this compound. In particular, we give a quantitative, direct evaluation of the electronic and direct optical gaps, clarifying their role with respect to previous values obtained by various experimental techniques. We obtain a description for both electronic gap and optical spectra that is consistent with experiments, analysing the role of different contributions to the experimental optical gap and relating them to the level of theory used in our calculations. We also show the spatial nature of excitons in the two crystalline phases, highlighting the localization character of different optical transitions. This paper aims at understanding and firmly establishing electro-optical bulk properties, so far not yet clarified, of this material of fundamental and technological interest for green energy applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Basis set effects on the hyperpolarizability of CHCl_3: Gaussian-type orbitals, numerical basis sets and real-space grids

Calculations of the hyperpolarizability are typically much more difficult to converge with basis set size than the linear polarizability. In order to understand these convergence issues and hence obtain accurate ab initio values, we compare calculations of the static hyperpolarizability of the gas-phase chloroform molecule (CHCl_3) using three different kinds of basis sets: Gaussian-type orbitals, numerical basis sets, and real-space grids. Although all of these methods can yield similar results, surprisingly large, diffuse basis sets are needed to achieve convergence to comparable values. These results are interpreted in terms of local polarizability and hyperpolarizability densities. We find that the hyperpolarizability is very sensitive to the molecular structure, and we also assess the significance of vibrational contributions and frequency dispersion.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2010

Doped graphene as tunable electron-phonon coupling material

We present a new way to tune the electron-phonon coupling (EPC) in graphene by changing the deformation potential with electron/hole doping. We show the EPC for highest optical branch at the high symmetry point K, acquires a strong dependency on the doping level due to electron-electron correlation not accounted in mean-field approaches. Such a dependency influences the dispersion (with respect to the laser energy) of the Raman D and 2D lines and the splitting of the 2D peak in multi-layer graphene. Finally this doping dependence opens the possibility to construct tunable electronic devices through the external control of the EPC.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Many body effects in the excitation spectrum of a defect in SiC

We show that electron correlations control the photophysics of defects in SiC through both renormalization of the quasiparticle bandstructure and exciton effects. We consider the carbon vacancy, which is a well-identified defect with two possible excitation channels that involve conduction and valence band states. Corrections to the Kohn-Sham ionization levels are found to strongly depend on the occupation of the defect state. Excitonic effects introduce a red shift of 0.23 eV. The analysis unambigiously re-assigns excitation mechanism at the thresholds in photo-induced paramagnetic resonance measurements [J. Dashdorj \emph{et al.}, J. Appl. Phys. \textbf{104}, 113707 (2008)].

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Strong charge-transfer excitonic effects and Bose-Einstein exciton-condensate in graphane

Using first principles many-body theory methods (GW+BSE) we demonstrate that optical properties of graphane are dominated by localized charge-transfer excitations governed by enhanced electron correlations in a two-dimensional dielectric medium. Strong electron-hole interaction leads to the appearance of small radius bound excitons with spatially separated electron and hole, which are localized out-of-plane and in-plane, respectively. The presence of such bound excitons opens the path on excitonic Bose-Einstein condensate in graphane that can be observed experimentally.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Sodium: a charge-transfer insulator at high pressures

By means of first-principles methods we analyze the optical response of transparent dense sodium as a function of applied pressure. We discover an unusual kind of charge-transfer exciton that proceeds from the interstitial distribution of valence electrons repelled away from the ionic cores by the Coulomb interaction and the Pauli repulsion. The predicted absorption spectrum shows a strong anisotropy with light polarization that just at pressures above the metal-insulator transition manifests as sodium being optically transparent in one direction but reflective in the other. This result provides a key information about the crystal structure of transparent sodium, a new unconventional inorganic electride.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2009

A modified Ehrenfest formalism for efficient large-scale ab initio molecular dynamics

We present in detail the recently derived ab-initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) formalism [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 096403 (2008)], which due to its numerical properties, is ideal for simulating the dynamics of systems containing thousands of atoms. A major drawback of traditional AIMD methods is the necessity to enforce the orthogonalization of the wave-functions, which can become the bottleneck for very large systems. Alternatively, one can handle the electron-ion dynamics within the Ehrenfest scheme where no explicit orthogonalization is necessary, however the time step is too small for practical applications. Here we preserve the desirable properties of Ehrenfest in a new scheme that allows for a considerable increase of the time step while keeping the system close to the Born-Oppenheimer surface. We show that the automatically enforced orthogonalization is of fundamental importance for large systems because not only it improves the scaling of the approach with the system size but it also allows for an additional very efficient parallelization level. In this work we provide the formal details of the new method, describe its implementation and present some applications to some test systems. Comparisons with the widely used Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics method are made, showing that the new approach is advantageous above a certain number of atoms in the system. The method is not tied to a particular wave-function representation, making it suitable for inclusion in any AIMD software package.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗